Access to correct and updated intelligence about our environment is in an increasingly degree considered important in the private as well as in the public sector. At Mälardalens University, competitive intelligence as an area of research is closely related to Information Design - a multidisciplinary consideration which goal is to improve the receiver´s understanding of intended messages. This study was conducted in order to find out how Information Design was representedin different kinds of literature regarding Competitive Intelligence. Also, it describes the main focus areas concerning Competitive Intelligence in the same literature. Through an explorative "pearl-growing" method combined with searches through referrals, 60 different sources provide a broad basis for analysis.

The Swedish reindeer husbandry has had economic difficulties for some years. Due to this, and the fact that the reindeer husbandry plays an important role in Sámi culture, the Swedish state has chosen to support the industry. If these grants where to be withdrawn, the reindeer husbandry as well as the Sámi culture would decrease, which would cause welfare losses for the people living in Sweden. The aim of this study was to elicit what the Swedes are willing to pay to maintain the amount of reindeer husbandry and Sámi culture. By using Contingent Valuation and a survey the willingness to pay was estimated.

Recently, there have been intense discussions about the humanities and their role in society. Internationally, as well as in a Swedish context, the humanities have been regarded to be in a state of crisis. However, these discussions usually demonstrate a lack of historical perspectives based on thorough empirical research. The notion of a crisis needs to be historicized.In this study, a case is being examined where the relationship between science and society was renegotiated. In the context of World War II, a discourse has been identified in a borderland between science and politics through an analysis of Swedish journals and anthologies during the time period 1937-1947.

The following study is a comparative analysis on the usage of history in Ridley Scott?s epic Kingdom of Heaven. Based on the thesis that this movie has a lot to say about contemporary political values, it compares the theatrical version from 2005 with the 45 minute extended Director?s Cut, which came out on DVD in 2006. Firmly based in the popular-cultural context I tried to evaluate whether these changes related in any way, to matters concerning the current gender debate and post-colonial theory.

The work was carried out on Termisk Systemteknisk?s office in Linköping. The aim was to create a computer system with infrared camera technology for quality control and temperature monitoring of manufacturing processes in industry. The system should be configurable such that it can be used on several different issues, including those where the real-time analysis of camera images is required.The developed system is based on an existing framework, Panola, to deal with measurement results and images in a database. The framework is built for the system continually check for new data , and the task was to create a foundation upon which to build systems that use the framework, but fully or partially utilize direct calls .

The purpose of this masters thesis is to evaluate bookmobile service as a decentralised library service. I have made a qualitative interview survey, with seven Swedish municipalities participating, all providing bookmobile service in their rural parts. The purpose with the interviews is to examine their bookmobile service. I have also studied articles on bookmobile service, and decentralisation through small library units in library journals, to get an insight into how the work with decentralised library service is done in Swedish municipalities. In this thesis answer is sought to the following questions: - Which decentralised library services are suitable for inhabitants and institutions in sparsely populated areas, considering factors such as number of inhabitants, proportion of old people and children, demographic changes, economy, possibilities to cooperate with other municipalities? - What is the current bookmobile service situation in Sweden, taking seven municipalities in the region of Småland as a starting point? My conclusions are that each municipality must decide which decentralised library services that best suites their needs.

Imperialism has for a long time been an important concept in international relations. The literature identifies many different types of imperialism. After the great de-colonization scientists stopped discussing ?classic? imperialism, i.e. using physical strength in the form of conquest and occupation to subdue weaker states.

Regionalisation has become an increasingly important phenomenon in a globalized world. As models of regional integration, the European Union (EU) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are two prominent examples. This thesis seeks to explore through a comparative analysis, the different mechanisms and institutions for handling breaches against fundamental values within the two regional organizations. Inter-linked with the issue of the legal-institutional framework is that of what values the mechanisms are designed to protect. The method used for the analysis is first and foremost that of public international and European law, but the thesis also attempts to give a broader picture of the issues presented.

This Masters Thesis is about the Swedish National Council for Cultural Affairs and the arms length principle. The principle is used to explain the separation of power between two parts with a common interest. The main purpose is to elucidate if, and if so in what way, the arms length principle can be used to explain the relation between the National Council for Cultural Affairs and the Ministry of Education and Culture, i.e. the Swedish government, but also to examine the structures of power and relations within the Council. In the thesis we show that in the field of cultural policy the content of the arm lengths principle varies due to the many interpretations of the meaning.

The point of departure for this essay is the observation that themunicipality of Lund is giving priority to handicap associations overother forms of associations. This act can be regarded as trespassinginto the realm of civil society. In respect of this, two aspects appearto be particularly interesting to explore. The first is to determinewhich perspective of freedom the municipality of Lund holds. Ireconstruct how the liberal and the communitarian state relate to thenegative and the positive freedom.

The ability to tackle NP-hard problems has been greatly extended by the introduction of Metaheuristics (see Blum & Roli (2003)) for a summary of most Metaheuristics, general problem-independent optimisation algorithms extending the hill-climbing local search approach to escape local minima. One of these algorithms is Iterated Local Search (ILS) (Lourenco et al., 2002; Stützle, 1999a, p. 25ff), a recent easy to implement but powerful algorithm with results comparable or superior to other state-of-the-art methods for many combinatorial optimisation problems, among them the Traveling Salesman (TSP) and Quadratic Assignment Problem (QAP). ILS iteratively samples local minima by modifying the current local minimum and restartinga local search porcedure on this modified solution. This thesis will show how ILS can be implemented for MSA.

The ability to tackle NP-hard problems has been greatly extended by the introduction of Metaheuristics (see Blum & Roli (2003)) for a summary of most Metaheuristics, general problem-independent optimisation algorithms extending the hill-climbing local search approach to escape local minima. One of these algorithms is Iterated Local Search (ILS) (Lourenco et al., 2002; Stützle, 1999a, p. 25ff), a recent easy to implement but powerful algorithm with results comparable or superior to other state-of-the-art methods for many combinatorial optimisation problems, among them the Traveling Salesman (TSP) and Quadratic Assignment Problem (QAP). ILS iteratively samples local minima by modifying the current local minimum and restartinga local search porcedure on this modified solution. This thesis will show how ILS can be implemented for MSA.

The purpose of this thesis was to develop and optimize a method of analysis for combustion of organic chemical products, followed by an ion chromatographic quantitative analysis. This was to be achieved with the decomposition equipment IKA AOD 1. The aim was to receive a precise and repeatable method that would be able to be applied to the process of qualification and technical marking of chemical products at the company, OKG AB in Oskarshamn. A complete instruction for the decomposition equipment and the method of analysis was written. A number of parameters were chosen from the general method of the combustion equipment, which then was tested parallel with a simultaneous development of an appropriate ion chromatographic method.

In recent years there have been many corporate scandals from environmental and social aspects. Corporate irresponsible behavior has led to major public discussions on responsibility and these pressures made that many companies wanting to show that they are working for a sustainable development by voluntarily reporting economic, environmental and social and social issues in the financial statement. They hope this will create credibility for the companies. In the current situation, there are a number of guidelines that companies can use to report sustainability. One of these is the GRI guidelines which is an international framework that covers many accounting areas and allows companies to compare their sustainability reports with other companies.The purpose of this study is to determine if all state-owned companies follows the government?s requirement that these companies must form a sustainability report under the GRI guidelines, and the sustainability report must be audited and certified by an outside party.

Aim: The analysis model was introduced after several audit-scandals in order to enhance the confidence in the auditors? independence. Our purpose with this essay is to find out if the auditors experience that the stakeholders? confidence in their review of the financial information has increased as a result of the analysis model. We also strive to describe the function of the analysis model in order to give the reader a deeper understanding in this subject.Method: The scientific approch we have used in this essay is a qualitative survey method, in order to find out the auditors opinion and attitude regarding the analysis model and whether the stakeholders? confidence in the financial information has increased as a result of its introduction.